Ills of Trading
by AsianCutie93
Summary: China calls for England for a meeting at Guangzhou port. He hopes to stop the trade of Opium, but gets a war instead.


Well, I haven't been able to write fanfiction lately and I apologize! I have been so busy with working an school that there seems to be no time at all! O_O  
>But I made this little Hetalia fic only 1300 some words long. It's mostly about the period right before the Opium Wars so yeah... pretty depressing stuff. My telling of course is probably REALLY INACCURATE. But I am not a historian. I am just using some facts I found while researching some basics for my paper on the opium wars and twisted them into a sad little story.<p>

Warning: If you don't like sad China, this fic is not for you.

Pairing: I guess England/China if you squint... but it wasn't intentional.

Summary: China calls for England for a meeting at Guangzhou port. He hopes to stop the trade of Opium, but gets a war instead.

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><p>China had a sickness. A great and awful sickness that Yao knew one way of stopping, which was to stop trade with England.<p>

It was why he called the other nation to this meeting in Guangzhou port even though he was feeling very ill. He hoped his body would be able to withstand being in the other's presence without humiliating himself or begging the other for more.

"Hello there China, what was so urgent that you wished for me to sail here in person for?" Arthur asked with a brilliant smile. He never used to smile before the drug trade.

"I have a request to bring you on behalf of my boss, the emperor." China said, gesturing for the other to sit across from him.

England nodded, his tone much more serious now. He pulled out the elaborately ornate chair and sat down across from his Asian trading partner.

"I cannot allow the purchase of opium to be taken place in my country. This is a warning to all the merchants who decide to continue the smuggling of opium. If these actions proceed, there will be serious consequences." China said in a strong voice. He had done his best to sound intimidating, but he was slowly losing his breath. The brunette tried not to give the blonde foreigner any tells of weakness, but no one could hide anything under the cold, watchful emerald eyes of Britain.

"Ah, well I am afraid that I cannot control my people-"

"Make them understand that if they do not wish to follow the customs of China, that they will suffer greatly and that you will support any punishment my people deem fit." China interrupted. Arthur glared. This was the 1800s and everyone must mind their manners when they were in the presence of England. They dominated the world not because they were lucky, but because they were meant to. It was destiny that the proud, European nation should rule and anyone acting as if otherwise was not to be tolerated.

"I do not think that a government should control the trade of a drug. Opium has logical, medicinal purposes. You were the one who discovered them. I do not think that the government has any right to ban medicinal products in this manner."

"But ninety percent of men in my country are not so injured or sick that they truly need opium for those purposes. What they buy is not the purified forms that doctors use. They use the cheap grade, yellowish brown color that is more harmful to their health."

"Some people cannot afford the best medicine. Sometimes we must make products so that even the poor can afford medicine." Arthur smirked, knowing he had the man cornered when it came to logic.

"Please, you have to stop giving me this stuff. I'm going crazy!" The Chinese man begged the English man. The frail brunette shivered. It was only then the English man took a really good look at China. His elegant, red silk jacket looked horrendous. It resembled a poor man's gabardine, the threads barely connected. The rich color that once represented China so proudly was fading into a milky gray except at the center of the back. Even in the little space the exuberant shade screamed it's culture and pride as it had always done before.

But Arthur, the Chinese man's drug dealer didn't care of his companion's condition. He got up so that he stood over Yao just softly patted him on the head as one does to an animal.

"Oh Yao, the way you say that makes it sound so convincing. But you know that your body can't live without it. You _need_ my opium." The blonde said. Yao shook his head but slumped down further into his chair in agony.

It was true. Almost every man under the age of forty in his country was addicted to the drug. Fifty-seven percent of their imports were opium from Britain, and a fourth of what their economic spending was on the horrid drug. Yes, some of it could be used for medicinal purposes such as pain relief and depression, but not every man in the country needed it for those purposes. And yet, they did. Of course at first it seemed like harmless recreation, perhaps to even prove one's manhood in the world due to peer pressure, that was how they got started. But the drug had crystallized and taken over their body, making people crave larger and more dangerous amounts every time and yet even though it causes such desolation on one's country, health, and social well-being, no one can fight it. It is a terror that can only be stopped by absolute isolation from the substance.

Arthur smirked at the other's misery. He used to be the one who was suffering. China would only trade silver with him. But his people wanted antiques, paintings, silk, porcelain, and tea, and there was no way to balance it out with only silver and gold alone. His country was suffering from the debt it had accumulated with China, and now that opium was in the markets there was nothing that was going to stop him from slipping back.

Arthur kneeled down and put on a mask of sadness. He placed a delicate hand on the other man's chin so that they were facing.

"My poor Asian friend. You must be under so much pressure from your leader, are you not?" He cooed, dripping with sickeningly fake sweetness. It was horrible acting, but with Yao in the withdrawal-induced opium state that he was in, reality was blurring and dying.

"Yes! He is so angry with me! He tells me-"

"Sh!" Arthur shushed and spooned the other man into his embrace as if Yao was a woman. Even though he acted kind, a large smirk was plastered on the English man's face. It resembled a demon carrying its next victim down with him to hell.

"But I cannot stop myself! It seems like the only thing that makes me happy are drugs. I do not want to be this way!" China cried against the Brit. His thin hands balled up into fists due to his extreme frustration and Yao proceeded to punch Arthur. The Chinese man was hitting the blonde with all of his might and yet, the other didn't even act as if he were being disturbed at all. The drugs and stress had reduced Yao into a feeble man who could not even realize that he was lying in the arms of his destroyer.

"There is nothing wrong with you Yao. I like you just the way you are." Arthur whispered. The blonde leaned over to kiss the other man's forehead but Yao with the last of his strength pushed him away, tumbled out of his arms, and crashed to the floor with a loud thud. He hissed in pain, but he did not make any other sound. China did not want to show any more weaknesses than he already had.

"How cute, you actually still have pride left." Arthur chuckled.

"I will always have pride." Yao stated with great confidence. In these small glimmers of strength, the Asian man seemed to be his actual self.

"Pity… I guess we'll have to do this the hard way," England said before turning away, "with a nice, little war. Would you like that dear China?"

China glared up at the blonde.

"Would you really kick a man when he is at his lowest point?"

"Oh China, you amuse me so much. You do not know how low I can make you sink." England paused to brush some lint off his blazer.

"Yes, I think a war is necessary to show you your place. I have the right to give you drugs and there is nothing you or your emperor can do to stop me. Good day," Arthur yawned and casually strolled out the door.

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><p>Well, I feel dirty writing that. I never feel dirty about writing smut but that... that just made me a sad Asian! ;_;<p>

Please read and review!


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